Wins Leader

[Hammerin Hank]

Who will lead the Braves in wins?

[Hammerin Hank]

My predictions:

Hudson: 19
Smoltz: 14
Hampton: 13
Ramirez: 13
Thomson: 10

[grizzly451]

This is of course assuming people stay healthy

Hudson: 18
Smoltz: 15
Thompson: 14
Hampton: 13
Ramirez: 10

[yellowdog]

Hudson 20
Smoltz 16
Ramirez 15
Hampton 14
Thomson 10

There always seems to be one guy who doesn't get any run support. I'm predicting that this year it wll be Thomson.

[Hammerin Hank]

Hudson 20
Smoltz 16
Ramirez 15
Hampton 14
Thomson 10

There always seems to be one guy who doesn't get any run support. I'm predicting that this year it wll be Thomson.

75 wins among the starters??

[yellowdog]

75 wins among the starters??

Yeah, I figure as long as we're making predictions I might as well shoot for the moon. Besides, I'm feeling especially optimistic with Hudson and Smoltz in the rotation. But I have a good feeling about this year's team, which probably means we'll suck.

[PureBaseballFan]

It is hard to predict how many wins they will each get since every single one if they avoid injury all have to stuff to win at least 15 games.

Hudson - 17
Smoltz - 15
Hampton - 13
Thomson - 15
Ramirez - 13

[Hammerin Hank]

Yeah, I figure as long as we're making predictions I might as well shoot for the moon. Besides, I'm feeling especially optimistic with Hudson and Smoltz in the rotation. But I have a good feeling about this year's team, which probably means we'll suck.

It may be unlikely but it could happen.

[yellowdog]

It's not out of the realm of possibility, Hank, but I'll admit it is a bold prediction. Everyone will have to stay healthy and the Braves will have to play good as a team. Some people seem to think this will be our best rotation ever. (I'm not sure I agree with that.) I still contend our '93 rotation deserves that distinction. Those starters won 79 games and that was with Pete Smith, the fifth starter, only winning four. So it could happen. I don't know that it will, after all, were just having fun guessing. But I think this bunch will be awful good. If it means anything (and it probably doesn't) they've gone through the rotation one time this spring and have combined for 10 scoreless innings so far.

[Atlanta Braves Freak]

I think everybody is overlooking Mike Hampton, he will lead the Braves in wins and accumulate 17 wins and make the All-Star team.

[burger eater]

I think everybody is overlooking Mike Hampton, he will lead the Braves in wins and accumulate 17 wins and make the All-Star team.

Mike "the foosball character" Hampton? No way he'll win more than Hudson.
The AS team... ehhhhh, I don't know.

[ATL22]

With the starting rotation being the strength of this team, I think the Braves really are hoping to get 65-75 wins from that group. We don't really know what to expect from the middle relief yet, and we're only hoping that the offense will score enough runs to support our starters. So I think we're really hoping that if the offense puts at least 4 runs on the board each night, the starters will hold the opponents to 3 runs or less about 70% of the time. Then, considering the bullpen will blow leads on occasion and the offense won't always be able to manage even 4 runs, that should translate into about a .580 to .590 winning percentage or roughly 95 wins for the season.
So basically what I'm trying to say is that it's a lofty goal for the starters to win 65-75 games, but with them being the strength of this team, I think that management is really hoping for that kind of production from them. Then whatever extra they get from the offense or the bullpen will just be gravy.

My lofty predictions:
Smoltz - 14 wins
Hudson - 19 wins
Thomson - 16 wins
Hampton - 17 wins
Ramirez - 10 wins

That's 76 wins which is just a hair higher than Yellowdog's prediction, but I don't think it's unrealistic if everybody stays healthy and pitches up to their potential all year long. Hampton is due to put a good first half and second half together, and Thomson has been upping his win total by one or two each of the past couple of seasons. Hudson should excel and will have the edge over the NL hitters who've never seen him before on his first trip through the NL lineups. For Smoltz, it's just a matter of staying within himself and not trying to over-do it. We know what he can do. Ramirez has been improving from day one in the big leagues and his arm should have plenty of rest as he gets skipped on occasion as the 5th starter.

[foxxx]

Hudson-20 wins
Smoltz-17 wins
Ramirez-15 wins
Hampton-15 wins
Thompson-12 wins

Thats 79 wins all together, its a lot I know, and it is of course if everyone else is healthy but I honestly think this is possible, maybe even breaking the 80 win mark. I think it will be less about the pitchers pitching well and more about the offense though. Like someone else said they all have the stuff to win 15, they are certainly better than the Cardinals pitchers who all got 15 wins last year, thats why I hate and love the wins stat because its not all about the pitchers.

[yellowdog]

ATL22 raised a point that I've been wondering about. That is how Bobby is planning to use the fifth starter? He used to always skip the fifth starter unless they played five games on consecutive days. And in most of those years, there was always one guy who was either more inexperienced or just a pitcher of much lesser quality than the other four.

But in the last couple of years he has shown a tendancy to pitch each guy every fifth game regardless of days off. This year with 5 quality starters, I'm wondering what his plans are. Will he skip Ramirez until he feels like his shoulder is 100%? Or will he just go with a five man rotation from the start in order to minimize the wear and rear on Smoltz early in the season? I'm guessing he'll make adjustments as the season progresses but I'm just wondering how he'll use the rotation early. Have you heard anything, or have any thoughts, along these lines, ATL22?

I don't think 79 wins is at all out of the question for this group, foxx. It's been done before. If these guys can stay healthy, pitch up to their capabilites, and our hitters can produce then I think all of our starters can have big years.

[ATL22]

Yellowdog, the Braves have a pretty grueling stretch of 22 games in the first 23 days of the regular season, so I think Bobby will be forced to use the fifth starter more than he otherwise might early in the season. After that, I think it depends on how Ramirez is doing health-wise and production-wise. Being the cautious person he is, I think Bobby will skip Horacio's turn when there's an off day in the first month or two of the season just to ease him back into his role. But if he's doing fine, after that I expect he'll just use a 5 man rotation regardless. Once Horacio proves he's 100%, it will likely be difficult for him to be productive if he's pitching on a non-routine schedule with 4 days between some starts and 10 days to 2 weeks between other starts. With Smoltz's elbow, Hudson's hip, and Hampton's knee, I don't think an extra day of rest between starts from time to time will bother them much at all, especially if Horacio is pitching like he did last year.